Back at the beach

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I'm really glad I ended up going to the Cameron Highlands. It's such a nice area. It's the sort of land where you expect to see fairies and unicorns. I hiked around a bit, and rented a motorbike to go check out the tea plantations that dominate the area. I really can't explain just how good the cool air felt when I first arrived. But after one night there, it was time to work my way back to a beach.

After a hellish journey from the highlands in Malaysia, I've been two nights at Railey Beach. While sitting in Tanah Ratah (Malaysia... highlands) waiting for my bus to begin the journey to Thailand, I met two English girls who would share with me all of the pain. We left at about 4 in the afternoon on a rickety old bus down to a big city called Ipoh, where we would catch our next bus. That first ride was not bad; the scenery was good, and we made it to Ipoh at about 7 pm. Ipoh is pronounced ee-poh, but naturally, I kept accidentally calling it IHOP. As there are no IHOP's in England, the girls probably just assumed that I'm dyslexic. Our overnight bus to Hat Yai in southern Thailand didn't leave until midnight, so we had five hours to kill. To quote the guide book "Ipoh is a seedy city with a rampant prostitution problem that you should not hang around in." We had no choice but to walk away from the travel agent's disgusting shop in search of food. I swear almost every restaurant in that town is the exact same Chinese restaurant. They all have the same name. They all looked dangerously dirty. There was really no where to eat, so we finally just went to the 7-11 and got junk food. The girls and I then split up, as they wanted to check out the night market that was on the next block. While attempting to get back to the travel agent's shop, I had to literally beat the prostitutes away with my hands. It was like an obstacle course crossing the street, with me juking left and right. There might have even been a spin in there. Finally they came back as well, and we spent the next few hours playing cards and staring at the most depressing fish tank in the world. It was your standard size fish tank with about 15 fish in it, but there was nothing else at all in the tank. Not even a little pebble or small piece of plant life. Ugh the sewage in the town just runs down the gutters. It was bad. Finally the bus came and we had an 8 hour drive to get to Hat Yai. The fact that over night buses guarantee a sleepless night was reconfirmed. We got to Hat Yai and had to wait 4 more hours for our mini van to Krabi. This town smelled nearly as bad, and I could not find a single place to eat breakfast. It was all damn Chinese restaurants again, serving up greasy chicken stuff for breakfast. Once again, it was 7-11. Ok we finally made it to Krabi and got on a boat to Railey Beach. It's so nice to be back here. I was really starting to miss the food and people of Thailand. The last couple days have been spent almost entirely on the beach. I actually have nearly perfected running full speed into a breaking wave, jumping at the last second so that it smacks my legs, and landing a full front flip. After doing this several times, I saw a couple older guys try it with disastrous results. I went out early this morning (early as in 10 am) and had the whole beach to myself. It's about 2 pm here and I plan to do not much at all the rest of the day. The same goes for tomorrow. I guess on Thursday I will start heading back to my final destination of Bangkok, where I plan on throwing away most of what I brought with me and buying some cheap new clothes. This is a good excuse to not do any laundry for the rest of this trip.

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Photos

A bee on a flower
Clearly...

Safety first
Or at least second or third

It's not fake
This monkey is always hanging out in the restaraunt. I saw it last time I was here, but thought it was fake...

Comments

[mike]

IHOP
the whole time i was reading this blog i kept mispronouncing it as IHOP hahahaha...what exact day are you coming back?? 14th?